Levels of Some Essential and Non-Essential Metals in Selected Cereals Marketed at Holeta City, Ethiopia

Abstract

Cereals are the most commonly and widely used sources of food in Ethiopia; hence determining the nutrient contents has a vital importance for the health of consumers. In the present study, the concentration of metals (Na, K, Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn, Ni, Cd, Co, Pb, and Ag) were determined in three cereal types (maize, sorghum and barely) using FAAS and flame photometry. The optimized wet digestion involving both, concentrated HNO₃ and HClO₄ was employed for the decomposition of each cereal samples. The accuracy of an optimized procedure was confirmed by spiking some cereal samples and evaluating their recoveries. Satisfactory linearity of standard curves was obtained with elemental correlation coefficients over 0.9999. Metals were detected in all cereal types except Ag in all three cereal samples and Cd in maize and sorghum, which are below the method detection limit. The general pattern of concentration of metals in three cereal samples follow the decreasing order of K>Na>Fe>Co>Zn>Mn>Ni>Cu>Pb. However, the concentration of Mn in sorghum and Ni in both, barely and sorghum are out of this trend. The result of this study indicates that all types of cereals contain considerable concentration of metals and the results are comparable with literature values. Hence, the cereals could be considered as essential sources of dietary minerals and possible means of entrance for nutrients to food chain.

Keywords: Cereals, metals, flame photometry, flame atomic absorption spectroscopy

 Cite this Article

Mulatu Yohannes, Tarekegn Berhanu. Levels of Some Essential and Non-Essential Metals in Selected Cereals Marketed at Holeta City, Ethiopia. Research & Reviews: A Journal of Toxicology. 2016; 6(3): 19–24p.